Absorbent nonwoven material is often used as a wiping material. It can be used to wipe up spillages and leakages in industrial, catering, office, hospital and domestic environments. There is often a desire to provide such materials with an image or decoration, for example a logotype. One common method of making images or decorations on nonwoven materials is to emboss images, the fibres are compressed by an embossing stamp. The use of thermal embossing means that a number of fibres are caused to melt and are damaged, which reduces the softness of the surface, and this in turn impairs the strength characteristics of the material. The embossed image will also be situated beneath the base level of the nonwoven material, which leads to the image being less readily visible.
Images or decorations in nonwoven material can also be produced by hydroentangling. This can be done, for example, by means of hydroentangling against an image transfer surface. A substrate web of fibres is laid on the image transfer surface, the substrate web is hydroentangled, that is to say it is sprayed with jets of liquid. The image transfer surface can be in the form of a wire gauze or a plate that exhibits depressions and/or projections. The nonwoven material receives its image or decoration against the wire gauze or the plate by being formed respectively against depressions and projections with the help of jets of liquid, and the nonwoven material receives an image or a decoration on both sides. A method of this kind is described in WO 02/04729. A nonwoven material produced in accordance with this method exhibits certain shortcomings with regard to liquid distribution and absorption, wiping on uneven surfaces and wiping of materials of different characters. Moreover, the resulting image is not so clear.
Another method for hydroentangling is described in WO 03/083197, where a nonwoven material with protuberances is produced. In this case, a plastic gauze is used as the carrier device for a web of fibres when it is hydroentangled. Here, too, a clear image is not obtained in the material, and it exhibits shortcomings with regard to liquid distribution and absorption, wiping of materials with different characters and wiping on uneven surfaces.
The intention of the invention is to solve the above problems and to make available improved wiping materials made of nonwoven material.